Dragon Ball Z: The Kakarot Rewrite
by Ji'aska
Summary: Funny how one event can drastically change the fate of the world. In one world, a child bumped his head and became the world's greatest hero. But, what would have happened if he had never bumped his head? Eventually, I want to reach Z, but that's going to take awhile. AU. Originally posted on 'Dragon's Sin Of Wrath'
1. Chapter 1: The Boy In The Woods

Chapter 1: The Boy In The Woods

The only sound that could be heard for miles around was that of nature. The running streams, the sound of birds chirping and flying, pterodactyls gliding through the sky, tigers hunting, monkeys rustling through the trees; a giant wooden wheel rolling downhill with an eleven-year-old balancing on it, wielding a giant sword, the blade of which must have been about twice his height alone.

On second thoughts, some would question whether or not that last one was nature or not.

The child had an almost unreadable expression on his face, beyond the corners of his mouth being pointed ever so slightly down. He was wearing a blue martial arts gi that looked like it had seen better days, as there were at least a dozen holes covering the outfit.

Although, if someone were to spot this child, they would probably be more focused on the monkey tail swishing around behind him than his face or outfit.

The wheel hit a bump and flew into the air, the extra momentum sent the child into the air himself. Without missing a beat, he flipped in the air, and landed back on the wheel, tail flicking behind him for balance.

He sighed, "Same old, same old."

Several times after that point he would find himself flipping or speeding up on the wheel. This was almost an automatic response to him at this point.

After a fairly short trek through the forest, the child forcefully stopped the wheel in front of a small building, made of bricks and with a blue tiled roof.

The child hopped off the wooden wheel, and then he did a quick stretch for what he was about to do. Running down hill on a wooden wheel was the easy part, the next step required a more focused effort.

He pushed the wheel till it was flat on the ground. He took a deep breath, and with all his might he jumped about ten feet into the air. At the highest point of his jump, he flipped in the air for some extra energy, before stretching out his left leg in a kicking pose. He was about to perform a stomp of sorts, on the wheel of wood.

After a brief moment his foot made contact with wood, and said wood exploded into several randomly sized shards.

For a moment, just one moment, he smiled at his work. Hitting things brought a strange sensation, sort of like adrenaline rushing through his system on his command.

This amazing feeling only lasted a moment, then he returned to being basically unemotional.

Before he could gather the wood up, he felt his stomach start to rumble. He glanced down, before nodding to himself.

"I guess it's dinner time." Without another thought he dashed towards the forest, his nose trained on the smell of wild animals and tasty fruit.

/

About a mile away from the wild child, there was one lone car driving up a narrow road that curved around the mountains. It was the only car for miles, and the driver must have known this, because she stopped the car.

She'd been driving for hours straight; she figured that a quick stretch was allowed. She got out of the car and made good on her plans.

It might be relevant to note that this girl was dressed to stand out, wearing a short cut pink dress that showed off her legs. There were also letters running across the chest, BULMA.

The fact that she had teal hair didn't do anything to help her blend in to any sort of crowd.

After her stretch, she found herself reaching into her hip bag, where she pulled out a strange device. It was like a pocket watch, but it was the size of her hand. She pressed the button on the top and the device made a ding noise for a second, then the screen lit up with a green grid and five yellow dots scattered around.

Two dots were together, one dot that was pretty close to the first two was flashing, and the last two were miles off her current location in different directions. This information caused her to smirk; a mild thrill overcame her for a moment.

"You're as good as mine, you little jewel." Feeling a renewed eagerness, she got back into her car and set off again, following her device's readings.

/

The child hadn't realised how hungry he had really been. The moment that his nose located some apples that were just coming into season, he homed in on the aroma until he found the tree. He wasted no time jumping up the tree's branches, until he found a nice spot to sit that had easy access to the apples, and he began to devour them.

The fruit was sweet, and the boy loved sweet things, but he was quickly running out of apples. He was going to need something more substantial if he wanted to last to tomorrow.

For a second, he stopped. His nose had picked up a new scent. He glanced down towards the ground, only to spot a sabre-tooth cat prowling around. It was giant in size, and appeared to be in good shape. The child found himself staring at the cat's mouth. His head could fit in there.

The feeling of adrenaline that the boy craved came rushing through his system once again, and he suddenly felt at peace, despite the crazy idea that was forming in his mind.

He plucked a fresh apple from the tree, and then with all of his strength he threw it at the sabre-tooth cat. The apple, being quite fresh, was very hard. It made solid contact with the feline's head, and the thud that resulted seemed to silence all the sound in the forest as it reverberated through.

The cat stumbled around for a moment, clearly dazed from the assault. The child allowed himself a rare laugh.

The sound seemed to bring the sabre-tooth back to its senses, it glanced up at the boy with a primal fury in its eyes, before it pounced towards the boy with intent to kill.

Time seemed to slow. The cat was in the air, flying towards the child. The boy sat perfectly still, waiting. As the cat got closer, its mouth wide open ready to bite the poor boy's head off, the child's last thought before reacting was, 'My head can fit in there.'

After that thought the child swung back, falling as the cat went over head. The child didn't meet the harsh ground, however, as his tail had wrapped around the tree branch.

He hung there upside down, watching in a twisted sort of amusement as the cat landed on its side. As it got up it appeared to be in pain, and the sound of childish giggling coming from the strange monkey boy wasn't helping.

"What's the matter, is the widdle kitty hurt?" Apparently, the cat could understand him, because it charged again, the rage in its glare was quite ferocious. The child started to swing like a pendulum, and as soon as the cat got too close, the child used that extra momentum to chop the cat's neck.

There was a sickening crack, and then the sabre-toothed cat skidded to a stop, dead.

The child dropped; landing on all fours like a cat. He wiped his hands on his trousers, before walking in front of the massive cat, his prey.

"You could've made it more fun for me, you know." Without another thought on the matter, he reached underneath the cat, and with minimal effort lifted it off the ground.

Then he started trek back to his temple at a calm pace. Cats were harder for him to cook than something like fish, but he had been hungry for some proper meat, so he wasn't complaining too much.

As he walked through the forest he thought about what he'd need to cook his prey: a knife, some flint, possibly some hooks to hang it...

He eventually found himself back at the little temple where he'd been staying. Everything seemed in order, the fire wood was where he left it, and the temple was left basically untouched since he left. He could smell what he believed to be a monkey, but keeping the wild life away was too difficult so he hadn't really bothered.

He continued towards the temple. When he got to the door he rested the cat against the wall. Fairly sure that there wasn't anything around that would steal his kill, he stepped into the temple.

The temple was basically a single room. He wasn't even really living in it; he usually slept outside except when he felt too scared to. Beyond the knife that he sometimes used for cooking, he didn't really move much in this room. Against the wall farthest from the door was a small table with a red pillow resting on the top.

On top of the pillow rested one of the few things in this world that he cared about. It was a perfect sphere that seemed to be every shade of orange imaginable all at once. The sphere had four dark orange stars floating in the centre, that which never seemed to lose their shape no matter how the sphere was turned.

The boy had seen the strange item many times before, but he couldn't recall a time where he'd ever seen it glow.

Which it was doing right now. F

or about three seconds, before it stopped.

He blinked once, then twice, "Okay, that was weird."

The item's strange behaviour was interesting, and the boy wanted to figure out what had caused the event, but it would have to wait till after he'd eaten.

He found the knife he was looking for, and then left the temple.

The boy took the sabre-tooth cat by the back legs and dragged it a fair distance from the temple, as precaution. He intended to start a fire, and he didn't want it to spread to the temple.

The boy let out a happy sigh, the boy was whelmed by the thought of finally eating something filling. The anticipation was becoming unbearable. He was interrupted before he could start skinning the cat, by something he couldn't possibly have predicted.

He was hit by a car.

To be fair, the driver had tried to stop, but it was of little use. He went flying, till he made a sudden stop against the temple's wall, face first.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" A worried voice rang through the air. The voice sounded different to anything the child had ever heard before. He couldn't quite place the difference, nor was he in the right state of mind to care.

He got up from the ground, a glare present on his features.

"Okay, I don't know what that machine is, but I do know that it's never going to work again!" In the blink of an eye, the boy had appeared by the side of the car. The woman inside the car could have sworn he hadn't moved, but he had.

With a strength that only pure rage could give, he lifted the car overhead and tossed it. As was to be expected, the woman inside screamed murder. A moment passed and the car landed on its side, smoke rising up from the engine.

"Hey, if you're still alive in there, come out so I can kill you myself!"

He heard a whimper, and it annoyed him further. What kind of person was he dealing with?

The head of a teal haired woman rose from the window, and suddenly it all made sense. He also felt pretty bad now.

"Oh, you're a-" Before he could get his words out she was shooting him. Within moments he was flat on the ground screaming in pain.

She suddenly stopped, with a look of horror on her face, "What did I just do?" She hadn't expected this. She had just gunned down a child.

"Those things sting! But don't worry, it'll take more than that to kill me!" As he spoke he bounced up again. Several shades of colour left the girl's face at that moment, 'What is this kid?'

Well she was freaking out, he got closer. He walked around her, studying her appearance: soft facial features, a higher voice, certain physical features that he was lacking, he was pretty sure. He was looking at a girl, the first girl he'd ever seen.

Though, he couldn't be a hundred percent certain of this, as he had very little knowledge of the difference between boys and girls. A smile found itself on his face, a chance to learn was just one more thing that led him to improvement. Or at least that's what he'd been telling himself for the last several months. With that thought in mind he lowered himself to the ground and had a look under her dress. He found a polka dot patterned fabric covering her.

The boy turned his head to the side in confusion, 'Well, that's interesting.'

She chose that moment to regain her senses, only for her to realise what the boy was currently doing. She quickly moved away from him, glaring at him annoyance. He looked at her with a blank expression, before grinning brightly at her.

The sight of his grin caused the girl to immediately feel a cocktail of embarrassment and rage.

"What are you looking at?" They met eyes, and he realised that he had a very small window to respond.

Taking a chance, he said, "Sorry, just admiring a pretty girl is all." She rolled her eyes, but a small smirk found its way to her face.

That was all he needed. It informed him that he'd been right, and the complement had worked its part.

"Glad to see your eyes work, kid." He smiled back at her, it was a false smile. He was pretty good at faking his emotions, or least he thought he was. His brain was thinking, 'If my Mentor didn't have a tail, and she doesn't have tail, then why do I?'

He decided to distract himself from the troubling question that he couldn't answer.

"Excuse me, but I was wondering, that machine I threw earlier, what is it called?" He didn't like asking for help, and she didn't make it any easier on him. She poorly hid a laugh at his lack of common knowledge.

"That's a car, silly!" His face lit up.

"Oh, so that's what a car looks like! My Mentor told me about them, but I've never seen one before."

She seemed interested for a moment, and he wondered if she was pondering questions to ask him like he was for her.

"Hey kid, you're pretty strong for a guy your size." He smirked, something he greatly enjoyed doing.

"Yeah I am. I owe some of that to my Mentor, but most of it's all me!" She rolled her eyes at his boasting.

"You've mentioned that Mentor of yours twice now. Can I meet him? I need to ask him something." That broke his smile for a moment, but only a moment. He sighed, turning away from her.

"Sorry, he's dead."

"Oh." There was silence for a moment, she had no idea what to say to that. Luckily, his stomach rumbled, reminding him of how hungry he was. He blushed as he turned to his guest.

"Hey, seeing as I destroyed your car, could I treat you to something to eat?" She stared at him with a strange look for a moment, before reaching into her bag. She pulled out a strange device, and after pressing a button and looking straight at the temple, she smiled.

"Sure, that sounds good!" Suddenly he was back on alarm. He watched her carefully as she reached into her bag and pulled out a small box. She pulled out a little capsule, pressed a button on top and threw it at the wrecked car. In a poof of smoke, the car disappeared.

He hid his surprise well. She turned to him again, a smile on her face.

"So, kid, what's the agenda?"

"Well, obviously eating first." He looked up in thought, "It's been a while since I've had someone to talk to, so that might be interesting. It could be about anything really, but you might have to explain some stuff to me."

He tilted his head to the side as a thought accorded to him, "After that, I guess we could play together if you wanted."

Quickly her face shifted into a look of mild disgust, "Listen kid, I don't know what you're thinking up, but if it's something improper, then forget it."

He thought about what she said for three seconds, and then a half-remembered conversation with his Mentor crossed his mind. Something about respecting a girl's wishes? He couldn't recall.

"Oh, okay. Tag then?"

She blinked at him, confused by how he reacted. No blush, no disappointment, no denial. He basically shrugged off the rejection, and then asked to play a game. That was pretty weird, as far as she was concerned.

"Ok, that sounds fine. Let's go."

"Oh, just wait here. I've already got lunch set up, sort of." He gestured to the sabre-tooth cat, before running back to the temple. Her mouth dropped in shock. How has she missed such a big, and notably dead, sabre-tooth cat?

She felt nervous as she looked at the boy run towards the temple, 'Did...he do this?'

He came back over with a knife, some flint, and a couple pieces of firewood. She wasn't sure which she found more shocking, that he'd killed a sabre-toothed cat, or that he had managed to carry all that stuff at once.

Oh wait, she knew. Killing the cat was much more shocking.

He made a cut along the length of the sabre-tooth cat's spine, and then started peeling the cat's skin off with his knife. The sight shocked her, and since she knew this was going to be a long wait, she decided that she needed a distraction to make it go faster.

"I should have asked earlier, but what's your name?"

He stopped what he was doing for a moment to stare at the girl, he seemed to be in some sort of deep conflict.

"I'm...Kakarot. K, A, K, A, R, O, T. Kakarot." Her face scrunched up in confusion. That was quite a strange name, and she couldn't for the life of her figure out what part of the planet such a name would have come from.

"That's quite a strange name you've got there, Kakarot." He didn't seem annoyed at the response.

"Yeah, I know. What's your name?"

"My name's Bulma, nice to meet you." Bulma smiled at Kakarot, who smiled back as he absently started gutting the animal. He slashed the knife up the undercarriage, revealing the creature's guts to the world.

Bulma's features slowly turned green with disgust. She liked meat, but she hadn't seen the process before.

Kakarot placed the knife behind him and put his hand inside the cat and started ripping the guts out. And that was when she turned away from Kakarot as he continued.

The conversation didn't start up again for a while. Bulma wouldn't look at him, but she heard noises.

"Hey, could you go inside the temple and grab my spit? I forgot to grab it earlier." Bulma nodded frantically.

Without looking at Kakarot or that poor cat, she made a dash for the temple. It was really small inside.

She forgot what she was doing completely.

Sitting on a pillow, on a table, in the middle of nowhere, was the treasure she'd been looking for.

"I can't believe it. That kid just has one of the Dragon Balls!" She found a sly smirk on her features as she walked closer to the Dragon Ball.

'He probably doesn't even know what that is! He'll never miss it.' With that thought in mind, she picked up the Dragon Ball.

"See, I get that it might have been a tricky task, grabbing a spit, so let me help!" Kakarot said from behind her, with false humour in his voice, "You see, that isn't a spit. Hand it over."

Bulma laughed weakly, and then threw the ball over to Kakarot. He stared at the ball with confusion, as it had started glowing again.

"Really need to figure out what that's about." He mumbled to himself. Bulma overheard him, and grinned, as she had found a work around.

"Oh, that. It's doing that because of me." Kakarot focused on her again with a raised eyebrow.

"Okay, explain."

She reached into her bag, pulling out her two Dragon Balls. Despite himself, Kakarot looked visibly shocked.

"So, you have two of these things." Kakarot quickly reasoned that if his ball had four stars that probably meant there was at least four of them. Where they important?

"They're called Dragon Balls, and I really need yours." She gave him a pleading look, her eyes sparkled, and she smiled at him. Kakarot was interested, mostly because this was the most excitement he'd had ever since his Mentor died.

"Mine? What for?" Bulma looked up in thought.

"Well, if you really want to know, these jewels have the power to do great things. And not so great things, in the wrong hands."

/

A door opened to reveal a dark throne room, along both walls there were rows of suits of armour. At the end of the room, resting on a purple pillow, was a Dragon Ball, with one star. The group that entered the room were quite bizarre, at least together anyways.

In the lead there was a short imp like creature with blue skin, wearing a strange hat. To his left was a young woman, dressed in grey military attire, and to his right was a dog that walked up right and dressed like a ninja.

"It looks dark in there." The dog said, quite frightened of the cold dark room in front of them.

"Shut up, Shu." The imp said, a smirk on his features. He dashed over to the Dragon Ball, the object of his obsession, picking it up.

"Finally! I, Emperor Pilaf, can have my wish!" Pilaf laughed, quite happy with the way his day was going.

"Sorry sir, but you actually need to have all seven of the Dragon Balls. We need to do more searching." The sole woman in the group, Mai, spoke up with a bored expression on her face.

Emperor Pilaf sighed, and turned to the woman, "Mai, I know that. I'm pretty sure everyone reading this as well knows that. Why are we even pretending that I don't know these simple things?"

"Because this is how it happened in the first episode, and we have to reflect that." Mai shrugged her shoulders.

Shu made a noise before joining the conversation, "Weren't we told something about not breaking the fourth wall?"

"Probably." Emperor Pilaf rubbed his eyes, quite tired, "Oh, forget it, yes yes, we'll return to searching."

Pilaf sighed, "Just cut back to Goku already."

"Actually, sir, I think he's called Kakarot now." Shu corrected his boss.

"Do I care?" Emperor Pilaf stared at the dog for a moment, before turning around, and walking towards the door they'd entered through.

/

"So, you're saying that with these I could wish for anything?" All the ideas that rushed through Kakarot's mind. A part of his mind firmly reminded him that it sounded impossible.

"Yep! I want to gather all of them, so I can wish for a boyfriend!" Bulma started making an annoying high-pitched squeaking sound. Kakarot was quite surprised when he heard it, only to be annoyed immediately after.

"I see. Too bad no one's ever going to use the Dragon Balls." This statement pulled Bulma out of her lust filled daydreams. She stared at Kakarot in opened mouthed shock, as the boy in questioned walked past her and grabbed the spit that was resting against the wall.

"What do you mean?!" Bulma's voice was doing that shrieking thing again. Kakarot was contemplating killing her, but then he thought better of it.

"Well, this used to belong to my Mentor. You recall, the dead one? There's no way I'd just let you take it." Kakarot thought that would be enough, but after a moment Bulma was looking at him with a flirty grin.

"How about this, we'll trade!" Trade? Despite himself, he was interested in what she thought she could offer him.

She pulled bottom of her dress up, and turned to him, exposing her panties.

One word dominated Kakarot's thoughts, and that word was, 'What.'

"You let me have your Dragon Ball, and I'll let you have a little peek." Within seconds Kakarot's cheeks lit up like a Christmas tree.

Kakarot took a deep, calming breath. He looked at her with a cheeky smile, "Oh please, if you want this Dragon Ball it's going to take more than just a peek."

Now it was Bulma's turn to blush. She giggled nervously. She was quickly losing control of the situation. She needed a way to convince him to let her leave with the Dragon Ball...her eyes widened as a thought accorded.

"Okay, I have an idea." Bulma said confidently.

"I'm listening." Kakarot sighed.

"You're really strong, but not only that, you're also bullet proof! So how about you come with me, help me get the other four balls, and when we have them all, then I'll reward you." Bulma smiled nervously, and Kakarot's brain rushed into overdrive.

'Is she lying? Probably, I would in her situation. But still, how do I feel about it?' Kakarot looked around the small room, 'I've never really left the mountain, and I feel like there is so much more to see...'

"Okay, Bulma, you've got yourself a deal. But I'm keeping my ball till we have the rest, you got that?"

Bulma nodded, a look of victory on her features.

"Sure, now that I've got you, there's no way I could fail!"

"But, considering our deal..." A light blush covered his cheeks, as he held out his hand, "You gotta shake on it."

Bulma let out another nervous giggle, but she still took his hand. After a firm shake, they parted.

"Great, this'll be so much fun! But first, can we eat?" Kakarot nodded, and they left the temple.

Bulma was pleased to note that the guts weren't anywhere insight. Kakarot started cooking with the spit, and the new partners enjoyed roasted sabre-toothed cat.

Bulma had to admit that it was better than she thought it was going to be. She turned to Kakarot,

"So, ready to go?" He nodded, a satisfied grin on his face.

"Sure, just let me go get something from inside." Kakarot disappeared inside the temple and returned a minute later with a red coloured wooded pole, and a bag designed solely to keep it in.

"We can leave now." Bulma nodded, and then got up. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her capsule case.

"Seeing as you destroyed my car, we're gonna need some different transportation." She pulled out another capsule and threw it, and with a bang and huge puff of smoke there was a white motorcycle. Its windshield reached all the way over and above the seats and connected with the back.

Kakarot stared at the machine with some confusion, Bulma smiled at it fondly.

"Things just keep getting stranger..." Kakarot softly mumbled to himself.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: A Night of Learning

"Don't look at me, you pervert!" Bulma screamed at the top of her lungs. She hadn't been prepared for today, not in the least.

After getting Kakarot onto the motorcycle, a difficult task as Kakarot had never even seen a motorcycle before and didn't trust her enough to take her word on its safety.

After promising that it wouldn't hurt him, and agreeing that he could hurt her back if she turned out to be wrong, they finally managed to get on the road.

Despite himself, Kakarot enjoyed the feeling of the wind brushing through his hair. Bulma was surprised that she didn't even have to tell him to watch where he put his hands.

Then, wouldn't you know it, Bulma needed to…let nature take its course.

"Just go right here." Kakarot said with a shrug. He couldn't see a reason she'd need to waste their time by going into the bushes.

"No way! I'm not letting you watch!" She yelled as she walked towards some bushes.

Kakarot rolled his eyes, "Fine, be that way."

Then Bulma walked over. Which left Kakarot to himself.

He looked over the motorcycle. He liked it, he was surprised that it could move faster than him. He felt, somewhere deep inside him, a desire to prove himself better than this stupid technology.

He smiled at having a goal of his own.

"OH MY GOD HELP ME KAKAROT!" Kakarot raised a brow, before sighing.

He got up and jogged into the bushes after her, "First you don't want me to watch, now you're inviting me over? Truly, you are the master of the mixed message!"

"This is no time for your snark!" Bulma yelled.

Kakarot followed her voice, turned, and found her to be quite right.

Bulma's face was panicked, which some would say was a perfectly valid response to being trapped in a pterodactyl's claw.

The dinosaur turned as Kakarot got closer.

"Oh, what have we here? Are you a part of this girl's tribe?" His voice was surprising smooth for a dinosaur, and to be honest Kakarot was more surprised that it could even speak.

"Nope. Just met her earlier today. You know her?" Kakarot smiled at the large dinosaur. This time his grin was genuine, if only because he could see Bulma's face out the corner of his eye and it was _hilarious._

The pterodactyl laughed, "Oh, we're best friends."

Bulma tried to correct him, but the flying reptile had covered her mouth with his claw. Before Kakarot knew it the pterodactyl had some rope in his hands. Kakarot could only raise his eyebrow as he wondered where exactly that rope had come from.

"Now, me and her need to have a ' _hehe'_ private conversation." As he spoke he had started tying Kakarot to a tree, one handed as he still had to hold Bulma and keep her mouth closed. Kakarot, understanding, decided to be helpful and stood perfectly still.

The dinosaur was laughing full force by this point, "Ah, it's good to see the youth of today being so obedient. That trick probably won't work in 30 years…anyways, be a good little boy and I might come back for a little snack!"

Kakarot gave a bright smile, "Okay Mister Dinosaur, I'll be waiting."

And with that the dinosaur started flying off, laughing full force at his remarkable luck. Bulma meanwhile had been struggling with all her might, though the dinosaur was too strong. But now that they were in the air, the dinosaur loosened his grip slightly.

He wanted to hear her pitiful screams.

"Kakarot, how stupid can you be!" Bulma screamed at the top of her lungs.

Kakarot, meanwhile, had already untied the ropes. The pterodactyl had neglected to tie down his tail, probably thinking it was a part of a costume. In fact, Kakarot had enough dexterity with the thing to pull the rope loose.

Kakarot took steps away from the tree and glanced up at the escaping dinosaur and the first person he'd seen since his Mentor's death.

 _'I could just leave them. She'd die, but then I'd have her Dragon Balls. Though…I don't know how she finds them.'_ Kakarot let out a sigh, _'Also, as much as it pains me to admit, I don't know much about the world beyond these mountains and she does.'_

Kakarot rolled his eyes, "It's not like she deserves to die either…"

He grabbed the Power-Pole from his back, and held it in a similar manner that one might hold a sniper rifle.

He aimed for a moment before saying, "Power pole extend."

The pole went off like a shot high into the sky, till it made contact with the back of the pterodactyl's head. There was a roar of pain and a shriek of terror, then the dinosaur started falling.

"Power pole descend." Before the pole was back to its original size Kakarot was running. He was fairly fast, all things considered. The way they were falling, she'd probably be crushed.

There must have been twenty feet between them before Kakarot jumped and yelled, "Power pole extend!"

The pole sent him flying into the sky at an angle. A moment later he was by Bulma, both falling through the sky.

"Power pole descend! Hey, I think you need better friends." Well talking he wrapped an arm around Bulma's waist, and with his free hand pointed the power pole towards the ground.

"He wasn't my-" Bulma began, a fiery glare on her face.

But she never finished because Kakarot yelled, "Power-pole extend!"

The pole shot out again, and with the added bonus of Kakarot thrusting his arm forward at that exact moment. The extra energy caused the pole to break though the ground below, keeping them suspended in the air.

Bulma looked down and gulped. Kakarot would probably survive this fall with little to no issue. She wasn't so sure about herself.

There was a crash a little ways away, both Kakarot and Bulma shifted to check. The pterodactyl had crashed into the side of a cliff, and was now falling to the bottom.

The sight made Kakarot burst out with laughter well Bulma took short calming breaths, her heart was beating so fast that she worried she might have a heart attack. And to add insult to injury, she'd wet herself at some point.

Kakarot also found this hilarious, "Just think, all of this could have been avoided if you hadn't gone into the dinosaur infested bushes all alone to pee _._ "

Bulma stared at Kakarot, fear on her face. What kind of guy was he?

"The sort that sees pterodactyl as a laughing…" Bulma mumbled bemused.

"You say something? Not hurt, are ya?" Kakarot's face was decorated with a tiny smirk.

Bulma quickly shook her head no.

* * *

After their little dino issue things went smoothly.

Bulma, being a lady that was used to certain comforts, simply refused to walk around in clothes that had been dirtied by sweat and urine. Hence, she decided to change. She opened her capsule case, threw it, and waited for it to explode into smoke and reveal a closet.

She picked out some clothes quickly, a simple shirt, a leather jacket and some jeans. She was about to walk off into the bushes, before remembering the events that had just transpired.

She told Kakarot to not look at her till she said he could.

Then she changed in middle of the road.

She hadn't been that worried about it, despite changing in record time. The simple answer was that she hadn't seen another human around for miles besides Kakarot. She was sure she could get away with it.

With these things dealt with, the duo got back on the motorcycle and drove down the road.

Time sped by as they drove. Bulma and Kakarot chatted throughout the drive, before falling quiet for what felt like and most likely was hours.

It would've gone on like this, if Kakarot hadn't felt the desire to clarify some things.

"So we need for more of these Dragon Balls, right? How long should that take us?"

"No idea." Bulma said honestly, "My radar points us in the right direction. But when we're in the general area of a dragon ball, the radar's data becomes useless."

"Oh? How's that work?"

"I'll explain it later. I'm kind of tired" Just as she finished speaking she skidded the motorcycle to a stop, which caused Kakarot's grip of her waist to tightened like a vice.

"Ow! Not so tight!" Bulma winced out.

Despite the pain she was in, she noticed something in that moment. Kakarot's heartbeat was frantic.

 _'Did_ I _scare him?'_ Bulma mused, _'How strange.'_

He let go of her and quickly jumped off the motorcycle.

"You're tired, huh? Guess that means we're stopping for sleep, right? Right. I'll go grab some leaves, I'll make sure to get you some extra comfy ones. Sound nice? I hope so. Well bye!" Kakarot spoke quickly as he started to walk off.

Bulma found herself baffled by this boy, a feeling she feared was going to keep cropping up as long as she socialized with him.

 _'It can't be helped.'_ She reminded herself.

"Don't bother. Do you really think I'd dare sleep outside after today?" Her mind's eye flashed back to the dinosaur incident and she experienced an uncontrollable shiver. She feared what she might see in her dreams tonight.

Kakarot stopped still. He left out a large calming breath that he tried and failed to pass off as a sigh. He then turned around with the same sort of look an adult would have after explaining something to a child.

"Well, unless you can pull a house out of your pocket, I don't think we've got much choice." Kakarot shrugged. He spoke in what Bulma believed to be an egotistical manner. It was a challenge to identify, Kakarot always seemed to be talking like that.

Regardless, Bulma smirked at the wild little weirdo. He quirked a brow, before his face warped into a shocked expression.

"You're kidding."

"Am not."

"Gotta be. That's impossible."

Bulma rolled her eyes _, "_ Says the kid that can shrug off bullets, destroy a car and deal with a dinosaur like a misbehaving cat. Compared to that, this is actual child's play."

Bulma walked away from the motorcycle and scanned the air, "Hmm, this seems to be level…you're gonna want to back up, Kaka."

Before Kakarot could speak up about his disliking for that shortening, Bulma had thrown an extra-large capsule. Kakarot then found himself diving for his life.

"Ah! Isn't it wonderful, Kaka?" He heard her voice, but it was took another moment before he actually looked up to see the results of Bulma's insane tech.

In what used to be empty ground now stood a metal dome. He saw two windows, and a door. There was even a chimney!

"I wonder what that long pole of metals for." Kakarot mumbled to himself.

"So, what you saying about leaves?" Bulma laughed as she opened the front door.

Kakarot found himself speechless as he wondered over, wanting to learn all he could about this strange new discovery.

Today he'd learnt about capsules. What were they? Were they science or magic? Where did Bulma get them from? Was there any limit to what could be capsulized? Kakarot didn't know, and he was desperate to find out.

 _'Girls sure are interesting…'_ Kakarot thought.

They were both standing inside the capsule house by this point. As the sun was currently setting outside, the inside of the house understandably dim. Kakarot didn't even pause to think about this. It was just what happened to houses when it got dark.

Then Bulma clapped her hands. The room was engulfed in light.

Kakarot blinked his eyes instantly, trying to protect them from a burning sensation. He ultimately failed in this regard.

"AH! Why'd it get so bright?"

Bulma stopped in that moment. She glanced back at Kakarot in shock.

"You don't know about _lights_? I underestimated your level of ignorance. For that, I am truly sorry." She quickly removed her jacket and left it on the chair before walking up to a television that was in the wall.

"Get a load of this." She flicked the switch and the television came on. Kakarot was already focused on it, eyes holding a look of fear and curiosity.

This curiosity was met with loud music and a man with large eyes staring back at him.

"I was just getting used to capsules." Kakarot turned to Bulma, "What the hell is this?"

"Young one, I have quite a lot teach you…" Bulma said in a sagely tone, before taking a sniff and quickly plugging her nose.

"God, is that you? You stink! You've got to have a bath, the circulation in this place is terrible."

Kakarot glanced at her, "Bath? Is that…some sort of food?"

Bulma's face lost all emotion, "You're telling me you've never had a bath before in your life?"

"Not to my knowledge, no."

There was a moment of silence well Bulma nonverbally freaked out.

 _'He's never bathed?! Why didn't I notice this?'_ Bulma's eye twitched nervously, _'He won't know how to do it himself…someone's got to teach him.'_

In that moment Bulma hated her life.

"Follow me." Kakarot could tell that this wasn't a request. So when Bulma started walking he did as he was told.

Normally he wouldn't, but she had piqued his interest. What was a bath? Another thing he didn't know, and she was just going to show him with no effort on his part.

He considered this a victory.

Bulma led him into the Capsule house's bathroom. This was only a traveling home, so the bathroom was rather minimalistic. There was a toilet, a bathtub with a shower attachment, and a sink that had a cupboard above it.

Bulma made a beeline for this cupboard, rifling through several different shower gels, shampoos and conditioner. After finding what she felt would be necessary for a person that hadn't bathed once, she turned to Kakarot with a fierce look in her eyes.

"Take off your clothes."

Bulma couldn't believe she just said that. To make matters worse, Kakarot only raised a brow in response.

"Well? Get to it!" Bulma told him again.

Kakarot sighed, "Is this for that bath thing?"

Bulma nodded.

Without further ado Kakarot removed his gi and threw it to the ground. He now stood in front of Bulma, naked and without a care.

Bulma, on the other hand, did care. She blushed and turned away.

"Get in the tub," She gestured at the bath tub for good measure, "And face the wall."

Kakarot nodded and hopped in, "Now what?"

Bulma handed him a loofah and some shower gel, "Put some of that gel on the loofah and rub your body down."

He did as he was told and at the same time Bulma turned the shower, wetting Kakarot's hair and body. In no time at all things became sudsy.

"So why are we doing this?" Kakarot asked, he hated asking questions but all things considered he felt as if he deserved an answer. The water was quite hot and the stuff in that bottle felt slimy on his skin.

Bulma meanwhile took some shampoo and started rubbing it in his hair, "You know what sweat is, right?"

Kakarot gritted his teeth as her hands went through his hair, but the nod of his head was all she needed to know he understood.

"Humans sweat to avoid overheating. Which is good, because otherwise we'd die. But then that sweat dries, and it smells awful." Bulma grabbed the shower head and rinsed the shampoo from Kakarot's hair. He couldn't stop himself from wincing.

"So we bathe and shower. The stuff you used was shower gel, soap that cleans the body of sweat. What I just put on your hair was shampoo, used to clean it in a similar manner."

Then Bulma stopped. She was so focused on washing Kakarot's hair that she hadn't noticed. That monkey tail.

She'd noticed it earlier, she had just thought it was attached to his trousers. From what she could tell, he had neglected to wash his back properly.

She sighed, "Can you take the tail off? I need to wash your back."

Kakarot turned his head to look at her, "I don't see how I'd do that, it's attached."

Bulma's face went back to shocked, something that she was experiencing far too often recently. Without thinking she grabbed the tail and gave it a light tug.

It remained attached and Kakarot arched his shoulders.

"What did you do, super glue it to your butt?" Bulma had no idea how she was going to remove it. She'd probably just have to pull it off…

"No, it's just always been there…I was born with it. Now…can you stop holding it?" Kakarot's voice had gone quite squeaky.

Bulma wasn't convinced. She tightened her grip of the tail, but did it such a way that Kakarot wouldn't notice her doing it.

She wasn't expecting him to collapse.

 **"OW! Why would you do that?"** His voice took on an edge.

Bulma blushed before running out the room. It was embarrassing! She'd been wrong, and he knew she'd been wrong.

This left Kakarot alone to nurse the wound.

It wasn't the first time he'd hurt his tail. Despite being useful for balance when swinging through the trees and the fact that he probably couldn't walk without it, his tail had some downsides.

It was sensitive, which made it easy to hurt him. Kakarot could recall a cat that was long since dead that actually managed to bite his tail. Kakarot still had bad flash backs about that pain, and the cat was violently and swiftly taken care of.

But what Bulma just did? It was mildly painful, but surprising enough that he lost balance. He was more annoyed that she now knew about his only major psychical weakness.

After calming down Kakarot finished his bath, making sure to wash his back. He figured out how to turn the shower off after ten seconds of fiddling around with it. But he was still faced with another major issues.

He was soaking wet.

"This is ridiculous." Kakarot mumbled to himself.

* * *

Bulma was drinking a cup of coffee, but it did little to calm her down.

He had a tail. Kakarot had a _tail._ She knew he was strange, but that was a whole other category of oddness.

 _'Why does he have it? Is it a birth defect? Is he part monkey?'_ Bulma threw that thought away before any images could spawn in her mind.

"Bulma."

She'd hurt him as well! They weren't close friends or anything, there was nothing keeping him around. Which meant he'd probably leave and take his Dragon Ball with him!

"Bulma."

 _'And all because I didn't trust him. He had no reason to lie but I assumed he was. What does that say about me as a person?'_

 **"For Kami's sake, BULMA!"**

Bulma snapped to attention, refocusing her sight on a naked Kakarot whose arms were crossed and whose expression was one of barely held back annoyance.

"I'm sorry for-"

"Don't care. I'm wet, how do you city folk deal with that?" Kakarot was simply assuming. He'd swam in lakes before where he'd just let the sun dry him off. But from what he'd learn from Bulma, quote unquote 'normal' people didn't seem to have the time to waste waiting to get dry.

Bulma just sat there blinked, then seemed to realise that Kakarot was naked.

She looked away quickly, "I'll go get you a towel!"

Kakarot stared after her, a brow raised.

"I wonder if 'normal' people don't like seeing each other naked…" Kakarot pondered the idea before shrugging, "Just another thing to add to the list of oddities."

Kakarot was pulled from his thoughts by a strange smell. He turned to the table, the culprit seemed to be the cup that he'd been holding.

The cup was full of a black liquid. Kakarot hadn't seen it before, and hence was quite interested by it. He decided to have a taste.

The cup was hot to the touch. He blew on the liquid before taking a sip. His face scrunched up.

It was bitter, a sharp contrast to the sweet fruits and meats he was used to. He loved it!

"Hey, Kakarot?" He looked at the doorway to Bulma who had grabbed an orange towel, "Wrap this around yourself, you'll be dry in no time."

"Oh thanks." He took the towel and wrapped it around himself like a cloak.

"So…that tail of yours is real?"

"Yes. You don't have a tail?"

"No."

"Oh." Kakarot took another sip of coffee, "You got somewhere to sleep around here?"

Bulma's eyes widened in realization, "This place has only one bed."

"So? We'll share." Kakarot shrugged the issue off. Bulma on the other hand wasn't so flippant.

"Yeah, sure. And you'll do weird perverted things to me well I sleep!"

Kakarot tilted his head to the side in confusion, "What sort of things?"

Then there was silence. Both held expressions of blankness, but for different reasons. Kakarot was confused, whereas Bulma was in disbelief.

"You don't know…" She trailed off, "How old are you?"

"About twelve. Why? And what things do you think I'd do to you?"

Bulma let out a sigh of disbelief. She had thought he was young, but after some actions on his part she had assumed that he was just short for his age. But no, he actually just a kid.

"Its better I not tell you. Go put your gi back on, then I'll show you the bedroom." Kakarot shrugged, he was sure he'd find out later.

He went back to the bathroom, got dressed and then was shown the bedroom and the nice double bed. It was softer and more comfortable than anything he'd ever experienced. He was asleep mere minutes later.

Bulma had a bath before changing into a nightgown and following his example.

Before drifting off however she wondered to herself, _'If he doesn't know about sex, what was our dragon ball agreement about?'_

She'd have to ask him at some point…

* * *

 _Huh...the pacing for this is even worse then a standard episode of DBZ. Shame, really._

 _I'd just like to say that this was adapted more from the manga then the anime._

 _Also I'm confused over whether this story should be M rated or T rated. What do you guys think?_

 _Thanks for reading this far, it means a lot. Feel free to review or not, it's not much of an issue. But, if you were interested in shaping the story there is a poll currently up on my page, feel free to cast a vote._

 _See ya later._


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